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shopclass's Past Cruises

May 2013 - Carnival Splendor to Caribbean - Eastern

For a first time cruiser, I was happy with the checkin process—fast! I was in my cabin within 45 minutes of first arriving curbside. The cleanliness of my cabin was impeccable. However, I wasn't surprised that cleanliness lacked in other parts of the ship. I would see empty drink cups around and other miscellaneous things as well. Additionally, and I know this is hard to combat at sea especially with a massive ship, but I did see a fair amount of rust in very visible areas.
The Pool was my biggest issue. I know the pool is emptied and cleaned daily, however, throughout the day with the hundreds of people using it, it's inevitable that the pool will collect oils from sun screen, skin flakes, hair, and a variety of other contaminates. It would be great if the pool water could be filtered as the cruisers swim and lounge. Perhaps that's a long shot, but it's worth considering.
Cabin: Our room steward Joner was amazing. He was extremely friendly, kind, and always smiled; being that he was one of the first people we saw before heading to breakfast, that in itself was/is always a great way to start our day. Well done, Joner.
Food; Breakfast: The buffet was what it was; acceptable. We tend to eat healthy so we began our day with Yogurt, Fruits, egg whites, juices, and coffee. However, one day we ate sit-down brunch and the Eggs Benedict wasn't very good. The hollandaise sauce was cooked and shouldn't have been; aim for creamy.
Food; Lunch: Same
Food; Dinner; We opted to eat as a family every single night which was great. We sat in the Pearl restaurant on the 3rd deck and ate well. The food the first few days was not hot coming out of the kitchen, but we mentioned that to our waitress and afterwards, everything came out hot.
Food; Everything else: snacking throughout the day wasn't hard, but the long lines were sometimes a deterrent—perhaps more stations of the same foods/sandwiches would have been helpful.
Nightlife: decent night life. We wished there was an Irish pub on the ship, but you can't have everything. The shows were amazing. Broadway caliber. Well done.
Safety: I never felt unsafe. I did lock up my valuables in my cabin, and my personal well being felt safe at all times, I did see quite a bit of security patrolling the last few days (the first few days I saw none).
Decor: I wasn't a fan of the forced 80s decor, but those are my tastes.
General comments: Overall we had a great time. Personally, cruising is not our mode of travel, but aside from that, we had a good time and were able to thoroughly relax without having to worry about anything—as long as we got back to our ship when in port ;)
Ideas: Here are some ideas I had while on the ship:
1. It would be great if we could have rented e-readers on the ship with the option to download a library of books and magazines.
2. Wifi: I wasn't a fan of having to pay for wifi, however, I do understand satellite wifi can be expensive. Here's the idea: If Carnival offered a limited time (3-5 minutes) for free wifi so the cruiser can get a taste of the service, likely, you'd have more people signing on for more paid time. I'm just thinking of it from a marketing perspective. Think of free apps (in app stores) most people download the free app for a taste and then upgrade to paid versions—works extremely well.
3. TV: The TV was not HI-DEF, but that's not what concerned me. It would have been nice to see a better UI for all the onboard services. I thought I took a time machine back 20 years the way some of the graphics were designed: poorly. As a designer myself, all of the sales promotional material for Carnival is pretty good, but the on-screen graphics (on the TV) were terrible. Additionally, the on board cameras that showed the different Lido pool etc should be HI-DEF since Carnival is essentially broadcasting on board and not via satellite. More views of the outside (not just the front facing camera) would be great too. As for the map of the ship's location, water depth was always something I wanted to know and not just via a once a day announcement.
4. Apps: An iPhone app of the ship and the specific cruise ship the cruiser is on would have been great not sure why a general Carnival app doesn't exist.